Which US 4G Smartphone Is the Fastest?

Choosing between the wide array of smartphones available can be a daunting task, and now we have 4G smartphones added to the mix. To help with this decision-making process, Metrico Wireless has tested today's 4G smartphones against each other.

Based on International Telecommunication Union standards, Metrico Wireless defines 4G as one of the following: HSPA+ or 3GPP Release 7, LTE or 3GPP Release 8, or WiMAX or IEEE 802.16. After evaluation, Metrico Wireless determined that only Sprint and T-Mobile's 4G networks could be used for an accurate test, since AT&T's network was not available in all the areas they conducted testing.

 The six phones that were compared were:

Below is a summary of the findings.

Webpage load time by network. 3G T-Mobile devices averaged 5.2 seconds, while 4G T-Mobile devices averaged 2.4 seconds. Comparatively, 3G Sprint devices averaged 10.4 seconds, while 4G Sprint devices averaged 3.5 seconds.

Average download speed while stationary. In order from fastest to slowest—Galaxy S 4G (6,154 kbps), HTC Evo Shift (5,031 kbps), HTC Evo (4,740 kbps), MyTouch 4G (4,684 kbps), Samsung Epic (4,538 kbps), T-Mobile G2 (4,212 kbps).

Average download speed while mobile. In order from fastest to slowest—HTC Evo Shift (5,699 kbps), Samsung Epic (4,804 kbps), HTC Evo (4,753 kbps), Galaxy S 4G (4,082 kbps), MyTouch 4G (3,284 kbps), T-Mobile G2 (3,240 kbps).

So which is the fastest US 4G smartphone? The results do vary based on certain points, but overall I would vote for the HTC Evo Shift on Sprint based on the data available. On the T-Mobile side, the Samsung Galaxy S 4G is the champion, with an average stationary download speed well above any other competitor.

UPDATE: The full report is available here.

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